


as long as we're fighting, baby, we both lose

by bothsexuals



Series: cul-de-sac crew 2.0 [6]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, anyways this is a psycho (1960) stan account, basically im projecting, except no one comforted me my xmas just sucked and im still w this stupid family haha read my fic, sorta - Freeform, tw: mentions of family issues sorry buds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:21:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28369773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bothsexuals/pseuds/bothsexuals
Summary: Abed can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit, which means that Troy can't either.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: cul-de-sac crew 2.0 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823377
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	as long as we're fighting, baby, we both lose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [liquidnitrogen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidnitrogen/gifts).



> idk just take this <3 it doesnt need to make sense it just needs to comfort me :D and make jbird happy i guess since its technically their prize oop
> 
> title from "Christmas Truce" by The Altogether. Go buy A Christmas Couplet by The Altogether on bandcamp, you can get it for just one dollar and Jonah really SNAPPED on there ok!!!!! Enjoy.

Ever since Troy had started celebrating Christmas, he’d absolutely loved it. He loved the songs, the gifts (obviously), the lights, the trees, the funny sweaters, all of it filled him with joy and giddiness and a kind of magic. But that year he was having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. He blamed it—well, no, that was a poor choice of words, he didn’t _blame_ Abed, but he was aware that he was sort of the reason why. He’d been snippy and bitter since December had started and the first decorations started to appear around LA and thanks to Troy, in their house. Annie and Rachel’s house was even worse ( _better_ , really, if you asked Troy), a real triumph of Christmas and Hanukkah spirit and celebrations. But Abed hadn’t liked any of it—in fact, he’d complained about the decorations on the doors being too low, brushing his face when he entered rooms, he’d complained about the too-bright lights everyone in the cul-de-sac had put out (Annie had made a joke about him being like Ellie Torres, and he hadn’t even appreciated _that_!), he’d told Troy to please turn off that dumb music the one time he’d dared to try to play Christmas songs with Abed in the house. 

He wasn’t mad at Abed, really. He knew there must be a reason behind his grouchiness, Abed was never just unreasonably grouchy! But whenever he approached the subject, Abed shot him down, quickly changing the subject—and he knew Troy was easily distracted! And really, Troy could do with a slightly less christmassy Christmas for one year, that wasn’t the issue—it was _an_ issue, but not _the_ issue—what was really bothering him was that Abed’s constant grouchiness had resulted in stupid pointless arguments breaking out between the two of them way more often than he would have liked (which was never), and there was nothing, _nothing_ Troy hated more than fighting with Abed, no matter how quickly it was resolved. 

“You can’t really be mad about this!” he whined.

“Yeah, well, I am,” Abed snapped back. 

“Calm down, Abed, it’s _Star Wars_ ,” he said, mentally chastising himself for ever daring to say what he did about Boba Fett. 

Abed pointed an accusing finger at him. “Don’t you reference memes at me when I’m angry.”

“But why _are_ you angry?” Troy sighed and ran his hands over his face. He sat on the couch and patted the spot next to him. Abed eyed it for a second, then shook his head with a grimace. Troy sighed again. “Babe, you’ve been like this all month. I know I’m not always the most agreed—agreeable, but come on. Don’t you think you’ve been a little...” Abed quirked an eyebrow. “Moody?” Abed’s features relaxed, then quickly turned into a sad frown. 

“I guess I have.” He sat down beside Troy. “I’m sorry.” 

“Can you just tell me why?” Abed silently bit the inside of his lip and Troy took his hands in his. “If you tell me, we can try and make it better. If not, we can continue to fight over stupid stuff until we’re both exhausted and can no longer stand each other.”

“I don’t wanna not be able to stand you,” Abed mumbled, “I like you.” 

“Yeah, dude, I like you too,” Troy chuckled, “that’s why we got married. Come on. Tell your hubby what’s wrong.” 

Abed rolled his eyes. “What’s wrong is my husband calls himself my hubby.” 

Troy laughed. That was more like his Abed. “Okay, other than that,” he said. 

Abed sighed and stared down at his lap as he spoke “I just. I hate Christmas this year. I hate it.” He looked up at Troy, who could see the glint of unshed tears in his eyes. “It doesn’t feel right. I see the lights and the sweaters and—and the trees and everything and they just make me sad. And angry. It used to be this magical thing and then one day my mother just went ‘hey, by the way Santa’s not real, and also your father and I are breaking up because of you,’ and now she won’t even see me for Christmas or even—she won’t even _call_ and her stupid child said she’s throwing a party and she won’t invite me so I ‘won’t cause trouble’ which makes no sense and, by the way, I _hate_ teenagers, why did he even have to tell— ”

“Babe, breathe,” Troy cut him off, putting his hands on Abed’s shoulders to steady him. “What I’m getting is your mom and her stupid family are just being assholes again, right?” Abed nodded sadly. 

“She didn’t even come to our wedding,” he mumbled miserably, “why does she hate me?” 

“She doesn’t hate you,” Troy automatically replied, “and if she does she’s an idiot and obviously it isn’t your fault.” 

“Well, she said—”

“Forget what she said! She left you—the greatest person ever—and your dad—a pretty neat dude—so clearly she’s not the smartest in the bin.” 

Abed’s brows narrowed. “What bin?” 

“It’s an expression,” Troy dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

Abed shrugged. “Change approved,” he declared. 

“I know it’s hard to not think about a shitty parent,” Troy said then, “trust me. But that’s not your family anymore, Abed, _we_ are. Me and Annie and Rachel and Neil and even those other idiots back at Greendale. The lights and the music are for us, because this is _our_ holiday now, and we’re making our own traditions and they’re so awesome! Like the way we watch _Nightmare Before Christmas_ every year and make fun of Annie and Neil when they cry? Or when they take over our kitchen because one kitchen isn’t enough for their crazy big Christmas dinner? Or those weird ass wines Rachel always brings? That’s what you gotta think about, not what some stupid people who don’t even know you. _We_ know you and we want you here. Always. Even when you get mad at me for saying Boba Fett w—” Abed raised a hand to stop him. 

“Don’t,” he said, “you’re very sweet, but you were still dead wrong about that.” 

“Fair enough,” Troy chuckled. “So, will you give Christmas a chance? For your family? Your sexy ass family?” 

“Just ‘cause you’re sexy.” 

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect there to be any other reason.” He got up from the couch, caressing Abed’s shoulder as he did. 

“Where are you going?” his husband immediately pouted. 

“Making hot cocoa,” Troy explained, “then I’m inviting Rachel, Annie and Neil over and we’re watching a movie of your choice. Doesn’t have to be christmassy. One step at a time.” 

“ _Psycho_ ” Abed quipped immediately.

“What a surprise,” Troy laughed. 

“When a better movie is made, I’ll watch that,” Abed shrugged. 

“Fair enough.” Troy made for the kitchen, but Abed stopped him, tugging on his hand. 

“Wait,” he said, and pulled him down and into a slow, grateful kiss. “Thank you,” he whispered against Troy’s lips, “thank you for being the best, most understanding husband in the world. And for letting me choose _Psycho_ for your Christmas movie hang-out.” 

“Of course, baby,” Troy whispered back, gracing him with another quick kiss. “You know I like that movie too,” he added with a wink, then left to do as promised. 

Abed joined him in the kitchen after a few minutes, snaking his arms around Troy’s waist and placing a kiss to his neck, then pressing play on a nice, chill Christmas song about pajamas. When the song turned into a more upbeat one, Abed twirled him around and delayed their hot cocoa by a few minutes in favour of pulling Troy close to dance around the kitchen, and as Troy’s ears were filled by his husband’s beautiful laughter, he finally started to feel the Christmas spirit.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, etc. Please?


End file.
